[Clinical course of refractory anemia. Study of a case series of 56 patients]

We analysed the course and clinical features of a series of refractory anaemias (RA, RAEB, RAEBt). We could not find evidence to support the hypothesis that these three MDS classes are inevitably subsequent events of a single disease. Therefore aggressive treatment of RA, aimed at avoiding its evolution to RAEB or RAEBt, does not seem justified.